Lake Travis...why???

LCRA is obligated to give x amount of water per year to the rice farmers further down the Colorado river.

I am just curious. Did those rice farmers pay for Lake Travis to be built? Did the lake front home owners? Or, as a matter of fact, any other lake?

LCRA is obligated to give x amount of water per year to the rice farmers further down the Colorado river.

Well now we know....

Scratch that forecast. We have something extraordinary going on today. Llano river flowing 285k cfs - LBJ 10ft over bank - boats going over Starke dam - Lake Travis up over 4ft since midnight. It will be full, tomorrow .

Im pretty sure its because of the amount of water that is on the way from the llano river last week but its gotta pass through lbj

Travis came up 10 feet in 12 hours and is 15 feet below full pool and they are expecting it to be full within 24 hours. This is according to the report on KXAN just moments ago.

Travis expected to hit 675' later today and that's from rain that's already hit the ground - doesn't count what's coming the rest of the week. Could be full by tomorrow.

So now the question is what do you do when Lake Travis starts to flood homes. This could get ugly.

Lots of fish being re-located .

Travis is officially full. 0.1ft into the flood pool

Is it out of the realm of possibility for it to come up another 20 feet to the emergency spillway level? I don't see how they can stop it without flooding Austin.

This may sound dumb, does Travis immediately go into flood pool if it exceeds capacity or is there a "flood pool" like on lake texoma?

Mansfield Dam spillway is at 714 ft. Flood waters have never to date gone over the Mansfield spillway.

Currently the plan is for 4 floodgates to be opened by this evening. Note that Mansfield Dam has a total of
24 floodgates that could be opened if needed.

https://www.lcra.org/water/water-supply/...nsfield-dam.pdf

Previous Day Releases
Lake (dam)
Approximate
Time of Release Average Discharge
(cfs) Discharge
Volume(a-f)
Buchanan (Buchanan) Oct 13 2018: No releases 0 0
Inks (Inks) Oct 13 2018: No releases 0 0
LBJ (Wirtz) Oct 13 2018: 6 am-11 am; 5 pm-8 pm 1,352 2,682
Marble Falls (Starcke) Oct 13 2018: 7 am-Noon; 6 pm-9 pm 1,346 2,670
Travis (Mansfield) Oct 13 2018: 7 am- 5 pm 1,084 2,150
Austin (Miller) Oct 13 2018: 6 am-10 pm 1,157 2,202

Releasing this much water when we're still down almost 15 feet??? What the what???

The amount of water that is coming into Travis is unbelievable.

This is going to be a disaster. I don’t see how Austin isn’t going to be under some amount of water.

It truly is. That's understatement too. And all of that water came through LBJ, which quite frankly, can't handle that amount of water coming through it without there being issues and a bad aftermath.

Looks like it did pretty well considering the amount of water that came through yesterday.

With a collapsed bridge, flooded houses, and lost boat docks & boats, I don't think it did too well.

LCRA just made a statement that in the past week, Lake Travis has received more water than the city of Austin can use in 4 years.

Wow!

And to think, just a few years back some people were claiming we were in a permanent drought caused by global warming.

Yep and now the liberals will say the flooding is due to climate change. They just go with whatever sounds best at the time.

Yep and now the liberals will say the flooding is due to climate change. They just go with whatever sounds best at the time.

Well now we know....

LCRA just made a statement that in the past week, Lake Travis has received more water than the city of Austin can use in 4 years.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Three 500 year floods in the last three years in Texas and now this one is the worst one in the area since the 30's....

I hate living in this Godforsaken red state....

LCRA just made a statement that in the past week, Lake Travis has received more water than the city of Austin can use in 4 years.

Three 500 year floods in the last three years in Texas and now this one is the worst one in the area since the 30's....

I hate living in this Godforsaken red state....

Yep and now the liberals will say the flooding is due to climate change. They just go with whatever sounds best at the time.

Well my suggestion is make yourself and the rest of us happy and GTHO! It's a win-win!!!

I’ll even help him pack.

Three 500 year floods in the last three years in Texas and now this one is the worst one in the area since the 30's....

I hate living in this Godforsaken red state....

Three 500 year floods in the last three years in Texas and now this one is the worst one in the area since the 30's....

I hate living in this Godforsaken red state....

19.6 feet over full pool at 0300

Three 500 year floods in the last three years in Texas and now this one is the worst one in the area since the 30's....

I hate living in this Godforsaken red state....

Four floodgates remain open at Mansfield Dam. LCRA will NOT need to open additional floodgates at Mansfield Dam today. It is still possible we will need to open up to four additional floodgates over the next few days. Please check this page often for updates.

Mansfield Dam is planning to open all 8 floodgates to release water out of Lake Travis. This has never happened before. This means that property along Lake Austin (near Austin, TX) will flood. The dam at Lake Austin will also be opened up to flow rates that will send enough water down the Colorado River to cause moderate flooding at #Bastrop #LaGrange #Columbus and #Wharton. IF you live along the Colorado River be prepared to take action and stay close to the forecast

Lake Travis is well into its flood pool, and is projected to rise to between 705 to 710 feet above mean sea level by Friday.

Current Water Level

701.54 feet (updated 11:00 AM)

Top 10 highest levels for Lake Travis

Rank
Date
Height (msl)

1
Dec 25, 1991
710.44

2
May 18, 1957
707.38

3
June 25, 1997
705.11

4
Feb 9, 1992
704.68

5
Oct 18, 2018
701.54

Source: http://www.golaketravis.com/waterlevel/

Officials said Wednesday afternoon that in the next 24 hours, a total of eight floodgates could open at Mansfield Dam at Lake Travis. That would break a record set in 1957.

Four floodgates are currently open at Mansfield Dam on Lake Travis and officials said Wednesday afternoon they expect that four more are likely to open within the next 24 hours. The Lower Colorado River Authority said they encourage everyone to take immediate action to protect people and property on Lake Travis, on Lake Austin, on Lady Bird Lake and further downstream.

The most floodgates ever opened on Mansfield Dam was six in 1957. Five were opened in 1991. Mansfield Dam has 24 floodgates total.

"This is an historic flood," LCRA said Wednesday.

In the past week, LCRA said Lake Travis has captured more water than the City of Austin uses in four years.

When asked if people should evacuate their Lake Austin homes, LCRA said they should "take precautions."

According to KVUE meteorologists, Lake Travis is 134 percent full at nearly 699 feet. The maximum height Lake Travis can reach is 714 feet before the water goes over the Mansfield Dam spillway. The closest Lake Travis has been to the maximum height was in 1991 when it reached 710 feet. The water has never in recorded history reached 714 feet. KVUE meteorologist Erika Lopez said the lake began rising rapidly due to filtering of floodwaters from the Llano River. Floodgate operations at Mansfield Dam have the potential to change with more rain in the forecast for the Austin-area, Chief Meteorologist Albert Ramon said.

Sometime after 6 a.m. Tuesday, the Llano River crested at 39.9 feet: more than 10 feet above the flood stage. That's the highest height the river has been since 1997 and is the second highest crest in recorded history. The highest crest for the Llano River was in 1935 at 41.5 feet.

Source: http://www.golaketravis.com/news.php?id=2982

Three 500 year floods in the last three years in Texas and now this one is the worst one in the area since the 30's....

I hate living in this Godforsaken red state....

Three 500 year floods in the last three years in Texas and now this one is the worst one in the area since the 30's....

I hate living in this Godforsaken red state....

Three 500 year floods in the last three years in Texas and now this one is the worst one in the area since the 30's....

I hate living in this Godforsaken red state....

Such a weird comment.

Something tells me you wouldn't be missed much around here, so why not look for bluer pastures? From the looks of it, there'd be a lot of volunteers to help you pack and make your transition quick and seamless.

Been to Austin lately? It is a weird city that is full of liberals. Wouldn't hurt my feelings if the entire town packed up and left Texas.

Craziest "drawn out" weather event I have EVER witnessed. Went to actually see the release of water behind Mansfield dam yesterday (Lake Travis's dam) and was told by a reporter there that with only 4 gates open they are releasing 2 millions gallons...PER MINUTE! Let that sink in for a few seconds.

Lbj was releasing about 350,000 cfs at it's peak. Toledo peaked about 206,000 cfs. That's how Travis caught 47ft in the past 30 days.

Now imagine what toledo released with 11 or 14 gates open. How much water can go thru a lake is crazy when the rain hits the watershed right. Mother nature is amazing and dangerous at the same time

Guess I don't understand their way of thinking. Instead of having 4 gates open and waiting several days to open 4 more for a total of 8, why didn't they open 2 more for a total of 6 several days ago to lower the lake and minimize flooding?

If they release it faster then the lakes downstream can release then those areas get flooded as well.

The problem that the LCRA has is that no matter what, someone will complain. If they had released water ahead of all the weather it wouldn't have been enough to make a big difference. Also, had they pre-emptively released, and then the rain not have been very substantial, people would have complained. Its almost like being a tournament director and deciding whether or not to delay a start due to bad weather.

Good lord if they had opened the gates early they could have gotten what, maybe 12 inches lower?

I'm betting the LCRA knows a ton more about how to manage the water releases than the fishernen do.

I'm betting the LCRA knows a ton more about how to manage the water releases than the fishernen do.